How Discoverable Is Your Business?

By Peter Roesler

President, Web Marketing Pros

A main goal of any internet marketing campaign is to introduce new people to a brand or company. While there are direct ways to accomplish this (e.g. ads, paid content, etc.), a business’s presence online should be such that their target audience can easily discover the company on their own. This post will discuss why being discoverable is so important for businesses and what can be done to improve their presence online.

For obvious reason, being discoverable directly relates to the SEO efforts of a company. All businesses, including small businesses and local businesses, need to ensure their business is discoverable online. This is more than just getting a website to show up when someone searches for a business. There are a lot of ways that people search for information, and depending on branded keyword searches means that a business is missing out on all the opportunity that comes from being discoverable. People who are searching for a plumber don’t normally search which a particular plumber in mind. So if a website shows up when someone types in “ABC Plumbing” but not when they search for “plumbers near me” then the business isn’t discoverable enough and the company is missing out on a lot of potential business.

Another thing that business owners need to be mindful of what additional information about their business is discoverable. Just as the internet can be a source for positive information about a company, it can also host negative items. People can leave negative feedback on review websites, and there are even entire websites that are entirely devoted to being a soapbox for angry customers and employees. People are free to say just about whatever they want online, but reputation management can help businesses mitigate the impact of negative items online.

Reputation management can be used in a variety of ways to combat the negative things that are discoverable about a business. Reputation management tools make it possible for businesses to scour the internet for negative content which the business owner can respond to by reaching out to the upset customer to resolve the issue; by reporting information that is erroneous and needs to be removed (e.g fake reviews); and by positioning positive information so that negative content ranks lower in search engine results. A company can’t affect what content people put online, but they can affect how easy it is to discover that content.

Being discoverable is one of the most important aspects of any internet marketing campaign. If a company’s social media presence, SEO strategy, or reputation management apparatus isn’t working up to par, then that business isn’t meeting its full earning potential. Take the time to find out how discoverable your business is, and what you can do to improve your exposure.